I was in the United States in 1994 when the ice hockey team, the New York Rangers, won the Stanley Cup. It was the first time in 54 years. One spectator threw his head back and proclaimed, “Now I can die happy.” The year was the same when O.J. Simpson led the police on a slow speed chase, because they wanted to arrest him for the murders of Ronald Goldman and Simpson’s wife, Nicole Brown-Simpson.

I felt the same way as that fan when the land of my birth celebrated its 50th independence anniversary. I saw the greatest influx of overseas-based Guyanese. They kept coming with every flight that landed at the Cheddi Jagan and Ogle International Airports.

I happened to be coming home from Trinidad when some of them were arriving. The welcome was out of this world, something that none of them could have got anywhere else in the world. That set the tone. Continue reading →